On Monday March 11, Tajikistan marked the Tajik Press Day.
By president’s decree the Tajik Press Day has been marked on March 11 since 1993. The Tajik Press Day is marked on March 11 in honor of the first Tajik-language newspaper, Bukhoroi Sharif (The Glorious Bukhara), the first edition of which was issued on March 11, 1912.
Doctor of Sciences in Philology, Sharif Mulloyev, told Asia-Plus in an interview that the editor-in-chief of the first Tajik-language newspaper was native of Azerbaijan Mirza Jalal Yusufzade.
More than a century ago, Yusufzade called from the pages of Bukhoroi Sharif for carrying out reforms in education, engaging in science and thinking about spirituality.
“Somewhere from the third issue the newspaper began to publish requests from readers in the “Letters from Bukhara” or “The Letter to the Issue” headings, in which people expressed their attitude towards the newspaper and its publications, and even towards individual employees,” said Mulloyev. “The editor-in-chief himself responded to every letter.”
Yusufzade believed that the main task of the newspaper is, first of all, to educate the people. “We need science, we must take up science,” he said,” Mulloyev noted.
“Most of his articles indicate that he saw foundation of the humanitarian society in the Bukhara Emirate in deep reforms in the field of education,” the researcher added.
The Tajik press is divided into three main stages: the first stage is the pre-October period of the 20th century; the second stage begins with the creation of the Autonomous Republic of Tajikistan, which was part of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan; and the third stage refers to 1986 and the period of independence of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Bukhoroi Sharif was the first Tajik newspaper in Central Asia started on 11 March 1912 in Bukhara.
The first Soviet Tajik magazine was published in 1919 in Samarkand under the name Shulai Inqilob.
In 1922, the satirical magazine Mullo Mushfiqi was published in Tajik.
The first Russian-language printed edition of Soviet Tajikistan was the newspaper Po Basmachu (1923), published in Dushanbe.
The newspaper Ovozi Sharq was published in Dushanbe in 1924.
Jumhuriyat, a mouthpiece of the Government of Tajikistan, has been published since 1991. It is continuation of the earlier papers Idi Tojik (Feast of Tajik) and Bedorii Tojik (Tajik's Awakening) (1925-28), Tojikistoni Surkh (Red Tajikistan) (1928-1955) and Tojikistoni Soveti (Soviet Tajikistan), which was published from 1955 to 1991.
Sadriddin Aini and Abulqosim Lohouti are the first editors of the newspaper Bedorii Tojik.
Sadoi Murdum (Voice of the People) is a newspaper run by the Tajik Parliament since 1991.
